Ya Allah! His master! No, but his servant, doing his will at the lifting of his finger.

And all for what?
For this! For this! For this! Ingrate!" he cried in his thick voice, turning hotly upon Israel again, "if you must give up your seal, why should you do it like a fool?
Could you not come to me and say, 'Kaid, I am old and weary; I am rich, and have enough; I have served you long and faithfully; let me rest'-- why not?
I say, why not ?" Israel answered calmly, "Because it would have been a lie, Basha." "So it would," cried Ben Aboo sharply, "so it would: you are right--it would have been a lie, an accursed lie! But why must you come to me and say, 'Basha, you are a tyrant, and have made me a tyrant also; you have sucked the blood of your people, and made me to drink it." "Because it is true, Basha," said Israel.
At that Ben-Aboo stopped suddenly, and his swarthy face grew hideous and awful.

Then, pointing with one shaking hand at the farther end of the patio, he said, "There is another thing that is true.

It is true that on the other side of that wall there is a prison," and, lifting his voice to a shriek, he added, "you are on the edge of a gulf, Israel ben Oliel.
One step more--" But just at that moment Israel turned full upon him, face to face, and the threat that he was about to utter seemed to die in his stifling throat.

If only he could have provoked Israel to anger he might have had his will of him.